


the worst part of the job

by adashofhope



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up, Established Relationship, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Post-Break Up, Self-Esteem Issues, but nothing too graphic or detailed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 04:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13494884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adashofhope/pseuds/adashofhope
Summary: the one where they break up.





	the worst part of the job

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to the timzussy cokeheads gc and the petermj as fuc gc <3 (unbeta'd)

“ _I’m_ breaking up with you.”

And there they were. The words he said often, but dreaded, coming from her mouth.

“What?!”

“You were right. We can’t go on like this. You can’t keep coming back from a deadly battle with some alien, or…or some psychopath who has brainwashed you into thinking that the only way you’ll keep me safe is by breaking up with me,” MJ said, eerily calm.

“MJ,” Peter shook his head vigorously, trying to think of some way to get her to stay.

“No, Peter. I’m tired,” she sighed, the tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m tired of convincing you to stay everytime.”

“MJ…” Peter said, her name being the only thing he could say.

She walked out of his room quietly.

Peter prayed silently that she would stop. That she would turn around.

And she did.

“Peter,” she sighed, looking at the hurt on his face. “I’m not doing this to hurt you. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything in this entire universe. I’ve wanted, no, I’ve _needed_ the same thing from you ever since we were in high school; I need you, to need me back.”

And with that, she slipped away from his room, and his life.

 

 

“Peter, I love you, dude, but what the fuck?”

Peter paused, looking up from his web shooters and back at Ned, “What?”

“You’re letting this happen? You’re letting her break up with you?”

Peter sighs, fiddling with his web shooters. Ned looks at him expectantly.

“It’s what she wants.”

Ned leans forward, shaking his head, “No. No, that’s not what she wants! She wants you to fight for her! She wants you to need her as much as she needs you!”

“I know that, Ned!”

Ned leans back, staring at him.

“I’m sorry, I just- maybe, it’s for the best. Maybe, she doesn’t deserve to date someone who goes out and gets himself hurt every fucking night because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. Maybe, this is a good thing.”

“Oh my God,” Ned sighs, giving up. He grabs his things, heading for the door, “I give you two days before you realise that you need her more than she needs you. Call me when you get your shit together.”

Peter pointedly frowns at Ned’s retreating figure.

 _Call me when you get your shit together._ Oh please, he’s doing what’s best for everyone in this scenario.

 

 

He wakes up two days later with an MJ-shaped hole in his heart. Translation: he wakes up two days later with his whole heart missing.

He stops a mugging in the afternoon and both the victim and the mugger ask him if he’s ok. A dude on campus tells him that he looks like he needs a blunt, Peter politely declines.

Peter spent every second of the past two days resisting the urge to run to her, to tell her that he was sorry, to beg her to take him back. But he stopped himself every single time, telling himself that this would turn out better in the long run and more importantly, it kept her safe.

He gets a black eye for stopping a robbery. Little does he know, that he’s not the only one.

 

 

He runs into her at the coffee shop right in the middle of their campuses.

When he sees her, two people in front of him, ordering her tea, he tells himself that he never expected for her to be here and that it was just a run-in that he would get over. There’s a coffee shop in his campus, but he tells himself that he likes the coffee better here. He doesn’t.

They lock eyes when she turns to leave and he nearly drops his books.

That’s a lie. He does drop his books.

The person in front of him shoots him a glare and he mumbles an apology, picking up his things and moving out of the line.

He moves to her on instinct, letting his thumb graze the bruise around her eye, “What happened to you?”

She tears her gaze away from his hand and looks at him. He seems to be completely unaware of what he’s doing. “I uh, I got mugged. Well, they tried to mug me but I got a few good punches in.”

She sees his jaw clench, “You got mugged?!”

“No, I got shot.”

He stops examining the bruise and looks at her with such intensity that she has to gulp. “Don’t even joke about that, MJ. I can’t believe you got mugged. Fuck.”

“Peter. I’m not immune to mugging and other criminal activities, just because you know me.”

“I should’ve been there,” he says slowly.

MJ rolls her eyes, yanking him to the nearest table and forcing him to sit down, “There we go again. You’re blaming yourself.”

“Uh, because it is my fault. That’s why we broke up, because I need you safe. So, yes, it is my fault.”

MJ’s stunned into silence. But not for long, never for long.

She leans forward, looking him right in his eyes, “Let me ask you something, Peter. Why are you here?”

Peter sputters for a while, shrinking under her narrowed gaze, “Uh, to get coffee.”

“Bullshit.”

“I can’t get coffee now?”

“No, you can. You can get your coffee at the café on your campus.”

“I like the coffee here better,” he lies.

She scoffs, “Peter, stop lying to yourself. You were here to see me. I know you think, that you even thinking of wanting to get back together with me is selfish. You think that wanting me is selfish.”

Peter opens his mouth to defend himself, but she speaks before he does. She gestures at the bruise around her eye, “This, is proof that you’re not going to be there to protect me all the time. I’m going to get hurt, and not just because I’m Spider-Man’s girlfriend.”

 

 

Peter realises something that night. That night, as he steals his roommate’s beer and drinks it all alone in his room, he realises that, fuck everything.

He wants MJ.

He wants her so, so bad. He’s not sure if he’ll even survive without her.

He needs MJ. And not just him, Spider-Man needs MJ.

Peter needs her to be able to breathe again. He needs to feel his heart beating again.

MJ does not deserve him. It’s true. He was right. MJ did not deserve to be with someone like him, because in every universe, he’ll never be good enough for someone like her.

But just this once, he’s going to ignore his morals and he’s going to let himself be a little selfish.

 

 

The door swings open on the third knock.

They stare at each other for 5 minutes until she invites him in.

Peter sits on her couch, “I need you, more than you’ll ever need me. I love you, so so much that I kept pushing you away and I’m sorry. I know, you think that for all these years, you’ve loved me and I’ve never loved you the way you did for me, but for once in your life, MJ, you’re wrong.”

He laughs, grabbing her hand and holding it against his heart in his clammy hands. “I feel, so much for you. It’s going to sound cheesy, but you’re the air I breathe. You’re my heart. You’re my everything. I’ve been pushing you away, because I thought it was the right thing to do, but fuck that. I’m going to let myself be a little selfish. I’m never leaving you. I don’t know, how I survived without you these past few days, and I didn’t. The day after I ran into you at the coffee shop, that encounter was what I was holding onto, to keep going.”

“And you know, if the bad guys want to get to you, then I’ll really fuck them over, MJ. I know they’re going to get to you and it bothers me so much, but you’re going to kick their asses until I get there and make sure that they never think of you ever again.”

“I’ll never deserve you, but you want me and that’s enough for me,” Peter says getting onto his knees. He wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head on her stomach, “Take me back, please.”

Slowly, MJ untangles his arm from around her waist. Peter braces himself for the worst.

She tilts his chin up to look at her, and he sees the tears streaming down her cheeks. Oh fuck.

But she pulls him up to her as she leans down, and kisses him. And he tastes her tears on his lips, but he doesn’t care.

He gets up, and slowly pushes her down onto her couch.

In exactly half an hour, they’re both in their underwear and she has her legs wrapped around his torso, pushing him down onto her. They both stop, to look into each other’s eyes. “I love you,” they say in unison.

And they don’t take their eyes off each other for a second.

Their hands are intertwined, right above his head and it means everything.

**Author's Note:**

> floofyparker on twitter  
> softboyholland on tumblr
> 
> talk to me, or send me requests! also tell me how shitty this was


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